Moving on to look at 2023 and beyond, this year's rural lecture will be given by the Professor Alistair Murdoch of Reading University, and all are welcome to attend. The lecture will be hosted online from 7.30pm on Wednesday 31 May.

So, a timely book How Village Churches Thrive, whilst not specifically ecumenical, is a fine contribution to practically encourage those in rural churches to be creative and take risks to love and serve their communities. Communicate effectively. Focused communication supports your parish vision and strategy and ensures that all your efforts have more chance of being effective. Who might we partner with? Lots of organisations need volunteers, so can we as a church resource the work of other organisations instead of keeping within our church walls? For more help, consider whether your project would be eligible for a Development Fund grant, and get in touch with your Parish Development Advisor. Extend your welcome to children and families - can they run around and make noise? How would you deal with a member of the congregation upset by the noise? Don't make women breastfeed in the toilet - let them know where they're welcome.

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From October 2022 to March 2023, we hosted monthly read-alongs to How Village Churches Thrive: A Practical Guide. Each session, we were joined by an expert in the field to give advice and support on the relevant chapter topic. Past sessions People were invited to attend for as many sessions as they liked, with some 'Zooming in' for themes of particular interest in their local context, and others forming a core group of regulars, building on their shared knowledge and creativity month by month. People from outside the church can bring fresh insights. Get people in for an open day - who knows who you might meet! One church had an architect pop round who ended up being very helpful in their planning. The pandemic has highlighted the number of people who feel isolated. The cost-of-living crisis is not only affecting people financially but also creating anxiety. This session looked at ways of engaging with wellbeing in rural communities, with an opportunity to reflect with colleagues on how the issues raised affect your context. The comedian Hugh Dennis (whose father, as it happens, was our bishop in Leeds all those years ago) commends this book in his foreword far better than I could manage:

Exploring how leadership can be exercised in a rural context, clergy were encouraged to attend alongside a lay leader to help support their planning for the year ahead. A hugely popular event - selling out twice - the day proved to be a fruitful time for all. this timely and helpful book…is full of practical advice and encouragement” Archbishop Stephen Cottrell Hannah Robertson gave a brief history of churchyards. It was Pope Gregory the Great who first suggested churchyards become places of burial – with the thinking that passersby would stop and pray for the departed. Now they serve as a welcome area to your church - the first thing people see and interact with.Bishop Jane would love to be joined by clergy, PCC members, churchwardens, AWAs and anyone supporting the rural church. Some members reported that there is an expectation in their local contexts that growth will happen, and that that is as much on the shoulders of laity as the clergy. One person suggested having an interest meeting to test the waters of who is interested as a starting point. Different cultures feel welcomed differently - but everyone will value a proper introduction. Give newcomers your name and ask for theirs, before introducing them to someone on their pew.

I wish every PCC had a copy of this book, which is produced on sturdy paper, is full of colour, useful tips and heart-warming case studies. It shows that outreach and welcome is in the DNA of village churches and it breathes confidence that they are the Church of England’s heart-beat and that despite what the hierarchy often throw at them they most certainly can thrive. The Church of England has launched a 10-point strategy to help its thousands of rural churches survive and thrive. What are the good resources for children’s ministry? Any resource is only as good as how you inhabit it. Whatever resource you use, inhabit it well to get across what you want it to get across – and keep it simple. There’s no one-size-fits-all response, but, as Yvonne says, “You are experts in your own community.” For example, café church may work in one context but not another, some churches have great success with Messy Church where others don’t. If you can only do one thing, and do it really well, what is that one thing in your context?Group discussions touched on the challenges of being in a different season personally to that of your church, as well as the tension of having to balance multiple seasons across churches in multi-parish benefices. Many of us who have lived in rural places know that the local church is fragile and, at times, vulnerable. Yet, it can be absolutely central to a community’s life and future hope. In the ecumenical work with rural church settings, there is both hope and fear mingled together. Simon Jenkins, who starkly described the Church of England as “the museum of the country”, also stated that in church he experiences only “the memory of faith present in an old building”. How Village Churches Thrive offers a practical guide to building on the positives of the former statement, exploring how rural churches can assist neighbourhoods to discover what it has meant, does mean, and will mean to be living and connected communities. Simultaneously, through gentle probing and widespread examples of good practice, the book provides a fruitful response to the negativity of Sir Simon’s latter remark.